Obama Rejects Anti-U.S. Sermons From Pastor Who Was ‘Like an Uncle’
Barack Obama denounced controversial sermons Friday by his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., shown here at a funeral service at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago in December 2000. (AP Photo)
Barack Obama describes longtime pastor Jeremiah Wright Jr. as “like an uncle” and a spiritual mentor, but the presidential candidate rejected Wright’s fiery anti-U.S. and politically divisive sermons after days of mounting pressure to do so.
Obama told FOX News Friday that he could no longer lay low as Wright’s past sermons, where he condemned the United States as institutionally racist and blamed the government for HIV and the Sept. 11 attacks, were played in heavy rotation on national television.
“Once I saw them I had to be very clear about the fact that these are not statements that I am comfortable with,” Obama said. “I reject them completely — they are not ones that reflect my values or my ideals or Michelle’s.”
Obama called his remarks “inflammatory and appalling” in a written statement Friday.
Though Obama has known Wright for 20 years, he said the pastor has never been active in his campaign and that he is no longer on his African American Religious Leadership Committee. The campaign said Wright left his unpaid post on the committee Friday, but did not elaborate.
Obama, in the interview Friday with FOX News’ Major Garrett, said he has been a member of the church since the early 1990s after working with the congregation as a community organizer on the south side of Chicago.
Obama married his wife Michelle at Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ, had his children baptized by Wright and donated money to the church, but he said he first learned of many of the pastor’s controversial statements, which FOX News reported on a year ago, only when they were aired in the media in recent days.
“None of these statements were ones I had heard myself personally in the pews,” Obama told FOX News.
He said the sermons now sparking controversy didn’t resemble the sermons he remembers from Wright, which, Obama said, stuck to messages of faith, values and helping people in the community.
Obama’s response came as critics called on the Illinois senator and Democratic presidential candidate to do more to distance himself from Wright, who, in a fiery sermon recorded and available on DVD, can be seen and heard saying three times: “God damn America.”
In his recorded sermons, he also questions America’s role in the spread of the AIDS virus and suggests that the United States bore some responsibility for the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Obama issued his more forceful statement against the sermons Friday afternoon.
“Let me say at the outset that I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy,” he said in the statement. “I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it’s on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue.”
A year ago, Wright defended his beliefs in an often contentious interview on FOX News’ Hannity & Colmes.
“If you’re not going to talk about theology in context, if you’re not going to talk about liberation theology … then you can’t talk about the black value system,” Wright said on the show’s March 1, 2007, broadcast.
Wright said his teachings are based on black liberation theology, which he summed up as “Africans speaking for themselves.”
Wake Forest University professor Terry Matthews, says in a lecture reprinted on the university’s Web site that black liberation theology “seeks to find a way to make the gospel relevant to black people who must struggle daily under the burden of white oppression.”
Wright’s supporters say his sermons accurately portray black America, and they contend his sermons are widely studied by theologians.
“I’ve been at some of those sermons,” the Rev. Dwight Hopkins, a member of the church, told FOX News. “The majority of Wrights’ sermons speak to healing, he challenges the black community … to be more responsible.”
Wright delivered his final sermon last month and retired as leader of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
Obama told FOX News he wouldn’t have quit Wright’s congregation if the pastor’s more controversial statements were isolated, but if that became “the tenor or tone on an ongoing basis of his sermons” Obama said he would have quit.
“Obviously they are ones that are from my perspective completely unacceptable and inexcusable,” Obama said.
With the pastor retiring from the pulpit Obama said he doesn’t see an issue in his family remaining part of the congregation.
“If I thought that was the repeated tenor of the church then I wouldn’t feel comfortable, but frankly that has not been my experience at Trinity United Church of Christ.
After the interview was broadcast Friday night on “Hannity & Colmes,” Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for President Bush, suggested on the show that the controversy and the timing of Obama’s disavowal show him to be little more than a shrewd politician.
“I think there’s a reason Republicans I talk to are increasingly looking forward to running against Barack Obama,” Fleischer said.
Click here to read Obama’s full statement on Wright.
FOX News’ Jeff Goldblatt contributed to this report.
It was a very convenient repudiation of the man’s sermons since it only came after the media got ahold of it. He was a member of the church for 20 years, and he never heard one of these sermons? That’s a bunch of BS. and anyone who wants to give Obama a free pass on this one, is probably someone who is also a member of the church, or is as closet a racist as Obama.
Hmmph. Too little, too late.
I guarantee that the message of anti-Americanism was preached loudly and clearly on a regular basis at this church and that Obama was well aware of it (and a full supporter of this message since he attended church there for over 20 years). Obama might want to be careful about making such a blanket statement that these types of sermons were never preached in his hearing. I find it hard to believe that he never caught on to the anti-White, anti-American tone of this church after being such an active member for so long. If he really didn’t, why would anyone want someone so oblivious running our country? Hopefully, all the sheep that have been herding behind this self-proclaimed shepherd will finally get a whiff of the wolf that’s hiding in plain sight.
Is it true that Obama didn’t use the Holy Bible to be sworn in as a Senator, instead he used the Koran?
whatever….the real Obama is exposed
WAKE UP AMERICA
If Obama finds this appalling now why was it not appalling before. This is the eternal victim role that many black Americans can not get over. I have witnessed many minority races come to this country and not blame others but take action go to work and earn success for themself. I have watched the government create many programs to help blacks, but I have seen little sucess because they do not seem to want to give up their victim status. As long as they blame the government, white man, yellow man, brown man, police, big business, slavery, discrimination and all the other activities and people that cause them to be the eternal victim they will be sucessful victms. Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, and the minister preach the religion of blame, hate, victum, fault, discrmination, and all this does is stop any personal responsibility for themselves. It hard to look at ourselves and take responsibilty which results in action when we play the role of enternal victim and a long as their ministers preach blame this cycle will never end. Enable a victim and they will remain a victim. Obama can not change in one statement what he has supported for twenty years.
What a sorry bunch of presidential candidates - aren’t there any normal non-professional politicians we can convince to take up the challenge? With morons such as this bunch, we’re doomed.
THE TRUE COLOURS OF BARACK EMERGE! YOU DON’T GO TO A CHURCH FOR 20 YRS. WITH AMILITANT AMERICA HATING PASTOR AND THEN ACT LIKE IT IS NOTHING. OBAMA IS A WOLF IN SHEEPS CLOTHING AND HE NEEDS TO RESIGN HIS SENATE SEAT AND STOP THIS CHARADE
We were glad that Barack went on all of MSM outlets and further explaining this issue. We (our family) have had to walk out of church on a couple of church services, and these are Caucasian Pastors. Many Pastors anymore, both Black and White sound like Rev. Wright. Either they are preaching a leftist agenda, or a ultra-conservative agenda. So, this issue of Rev. Wright isn’t any surprise to us. Many Pastors do not preach from the Bible that much anymore. They seem to use two verses from the Bible, then “wing it” from there. We have been fully aware of Rezko, dating back a long time ago. So Rezko, really isn’t any “new” news to most of us. We think that it is “ODD” that Sean Hannity didn’t inveterview Barack himself, being that this is Sean’s main agenda. LOL!! We are starting to believe that Sean, Rush, and other conservative talk shows have an agenda to basically destroy Barack AND Michelle. They sure aren’t reporting the fact how Hillary Clinton has consistantly lied on the campaign trail about her foriegn policy experience (Northern Ireland/Bosnia-Kosovo). Hillary, is also telling lies at the campaign rallys about SCHIP. There is so much dirt on John McCain that we do not have the time to type it all. Let’s just say that he has quite a “checkered” past with his associations. LOL!
Although Obama claims he never heard these types of comments when he was present at Rev. Wright’s church, a twenty year affiliation with someone you claim to be your mentor and spiritual guide should have given him some clue to the nature of Rev. Wright. These comments show Rev. Wright’s true feelings and opinions, and give us insight into Rev. Wright’s character. It is hard for me to believe that someone could be my mentor and spiritual guide for 20 years without me knowing their true character and personality.
Obama is only condemning Wright because of the publicity he, Wright, has been getting. After 20 years under this guys teaching, it is obvious that Obama is also a militant black separatist, otherwise he would have left that church years ago. You don’t get to pick your uncles but you do pick the pastor you agree with and want to follow.